Jinchuriki
by Razorheart31
Summary: The world is full of troubles, but what happens when a jinchuriki is charged with murder. Will he be found guilty? Or is there something much bigger going on? As time passes more secrets come to light and nothing is like before, what is going on? (In this universe Naruto, Gaara, and Sasuke are jinchuriki). NaruHina, SasuSaku, GaaMatsu, other pairings to be decided in the future.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

Being a Jinchuriki is no easy matter. Your mind is constantly plagued with the influence of the tailed beast and you don't know when you might loose control. To add insult to the injury you take the risk of being alone. Very few people are comfortable around Jinchuriki, even less are those who refrain from physically harming them. They are shoved, kicked, punched, and in some cases they have stones thrown at them. Long story short, a Jinchuriki has a hard life, even more when you are accused of murder.

Land of Fire, present day.

A three man squad had been deployed from Konoha to rendezvous with a squad from Sunagakure, apparently the Kazekage had been dealing with some issues regarding the Hidden Leaf's Jinchuriki. The team was the usual arrangement, a sensory type, a medical ninja, and their leader. They were Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno, and Kakashi Hatake. They had been traveling for several hours in silence until Sakura started to speak.

"I don't get it, why do we let them roam free if we know that they are going to cause trouble?" She looked at her teammates for an answer. Kakashi was the one to respond.

"Sakura, you must not forget. A Jinchuriki itself may not seem so dangerous, but the beast inside them is something to be wary about. If we lock them up they might feel threatened, they could get really angry, go into a rampage and destroy the village."

"Then why don't we seal them? They can't rampage there can they?"

"The Hokage not only wants the Jinchuriki to contain the beast, he wants them to be able to use its power should the need arise. I don't think they would be much help inside a piece of paper."

"But!" This time Hinata intervened.

"C-calm down, S-sakura-san! W-we are on a m-mission. B-besides, the t-tailed beasts themselves haven't caused t-trouble in a long time!"

"All right Hinata, but please don't call me Sakura-san, it makes me feel old."

"Sumimasen, Sakura-san."

"Ahhh, never mind. Lets just go." They picked up the pace and soon found themselves running on sand instead of grass. And with some more running they eventually met up with the other squad. It was made up of the brothers Temari and Kankuro and impressively enough the Kazekage was with them. When they got close enough to have proper introductions. All three of them bowed down in respect.

Kakashi spoke for his team. "Kazekage-sama!" He nodded at them and motioned for them to get up. "We are the squad that has been sent by the Hokage to help deal with the Jinchuriki issue."

"Its about time you guys got here!It is your Jinchuriki that is causing troubles yet you have audacity of-"

"KANKURO!" The Kazekage turned to scold his son, who immediately calmed down. "Forgive him, my son can get out of line sometimes." Temari walked up to Kankuro and started to shuffle his hair.

"The baka is just upset because his favorite doll broke." She made a pouty face like a child would. Kankuro stepped back visibly furious.

"Shut up, Temari! They are not dolls, they are shinobi puppets, and the reason its broken is because of you!"

"Its your fault for trying to scare me with that stupid doll!"

"Stop it! Both of you. You are representatives from Suna, not five year olds!" Both of them murmured something and then retreated back into their tents. "Once again, I apologize for their behavior."

"Don't worry Kazekage-sama, we deal with stuff like that all the time. But with all due respect we really need to get a move on," Kakashi pulled out a map of the land of air and a written permit, "we need you to sign this to grant us the authority of apprehending the Jinchuriki. And also cold you be as kind as to mark the area in which he was last seen?" The Kazekage took both papers and pulled out his own pen. "Of course... However you must understand that there are some things that I can't allow you to do. The most important being that I cannot allow you to harm any person other than the Jinchuriki, understand?" All three nodded. "Very well then, according to the reports he was last seen around this area." He circled a big corner of the map, it was filled with mountains and canyons, perfect for hiding.

"Arigato, Kazekage-sama. Now with your permission we would like to get started." They were about to run away when they were stopped by the Kazekage.

"Hold on! Just to be sure that you stick to out agreements, you shall be accompanied by one of my own." When he looked back Kankuro was trying to make it seem like he was busy with something so Temari stepped forward.

"I'll go with them!" The Kazekage nodded back at her and then motioned for them to leave. The now four man squad sprinted off in the direction in which their target was last seen. They had been walking until Temari motioned for them to stop. She then bent down and shuffled through the sand. Hinata stood by her side and spoke.

"Temari-san, what are you doing? We still have a couple more miles before we reach our destination." Temari lifted a her hand, in it was a bunch of, impressively enough, sand.

"What is that?" Kakashi asked. Temari threw it to the ground and pointed to the ground/

"This, is Gaara's sand. There is a good chance that following this trail will lead us to your the right way. If there were another Jinchuriki in the land of air Gaara would certainly be with them." This time it was Sakura who stepped forward with a question.

"Temari, how can you tell that the sand is Gaara's? It looks exactly like normal sand."

"The sand that has been manipulated by Gaara is always left with small traces of his chakra." Kakashi lifted his headband, activating his sharingan, he looked through the sand until he notices something.

"There is a thin trail of chakra infused sand. It continues towards the east. Any noticeable place in that direction?"

"Only one. A small village that is fairly close to the Land of Rivers. Since most of the villagers there have more connection with them they won't be able to recognize the Jinchuriki. It would be a good place in which to disappear."

"All right then let's go!"

BORDER OF THE LAND OF RIVERS, PRESENT DAY.

There is a young man standing in a cliff overlooking a small town. He is wearing a large hood so his upper face is not visible. He is facing the town without moving or saying a single word, in his hand lays a small music box that is reproducing a sweet and tender lullaby. The young man seemed to be whispering a tune but it was inaudible. Then the calm was broken when another man appears behind him, but his face is completely visible. He has short and spiky auburn hair. His eyes are narrow, greenish-blue and they have dark rings around them. But what was most noticeable was a tattoo on the right part of his forehead, it is the kanji for love. He was about to speak when the other man held his hand up, motioning for him to remain quiet. The music ended with the melody of a soft harp. Then he closed the small box and put it on his pocket, he turned back to the other man and spoke.

"Did you leave the trail, Gaara?" The other man nodded.

"Small enough to seem like its unintentional but large enough to be detected." The other man smiled and stayed quiet while looking at the town.

"What makes you think they will listen to you?"

"THEY won't, SHE will." Gaara had a sly smile on his face.

"What if HE finds out that you gave her such documents?" The other man flinched at those words.

"If he so much lays a finger on her, I'll rip his fucking throat out!" He was clenching his fists and had started to visibly tremble. But then a hand fell on his shoulder. He didn't turn to look at Gaara, he kept on looking at the ground

"Come on, we have to go. They will be here any minute." The other man relaxed and turned to leave. But he suddenly shifted his gaze towards the forest. Gaara seemed puzzled by this.

"What?" The other man simply turned back towards the road and started to walk.

"They're here!"

Hinata opened her eyes in shock and let out a loud gasp. Kakashi turned to look at her.

"Did you find anything?" She slowly nodded yes. "Okay then, come on, we can't let him get away!" They started to sprint towards the town but Hinata stayed a little behind, deep in her thoughts.

_We are coming to bring you back home, Naruto-kun._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

_We are coming to bring you home Naruto-kun._

The Konoha and Suna squad walked through the entrance of the village. Everything was just like a normal village, children playing and laughing, storekeepers trying to persuade people into buying, and the occasional restaurant emanating tantalizing scents. But there was something not quite right.

"Where are all the shinobi?" Sakura asked. Temari was about to answer when Kakashi stepped in.

"There have been rumors of ninja being kidnapped in the surrounding areas. No culprit has been identified and no bodies have been recovered. Right now the investigation is being undertaken by the Land of Rivers, since most of the victims were from their land. So to prevent any more casualties all of the shinobi were reassigned to other areas. Best we finish this quickly, we don't want to intervene in their investigation." They split up and walked through the town asking anyone if they had seen two men passing by. No one seemed to have seen them so Hinata decided to move on to the farming sector while the others stayed in the town. She had barely crossed a small fence when someone called to her.

"Excuse me sweetie but, I believe this letter is for you?" Hinata turned to face the person. She was an old woman, probably in her late 80's. She was holding a small envelope in her hand. She extended it to her and said, "a young man gave this to me and said that I had to hand it to someone with long and lavender colored hair. He also mentioned that you would have pale eyes." Hinata was confused but then something clicked in her head.

"What did this man look like?" The old woman closed her eyes and her face showed a concentrated expression.

"He had mask on, a fox mask, so I didn't see much of his face, but..." she once again started to think real hard. Hinata was inching closer and closer waiting for the answer.

"But?" Just then the old woman's face lit up and she clasped her hands in excitement.

"He had blue eyes! He had bright,sky blue eyes!" Hinata smiled at this and then bowed down.

"Arigato!" She then turned around and started to run towards the town. But in the middle of the way she stopped dead in her tracks and looked down at the letter. She kept staring at it for a minute. "_If he wanted to communicate with us... Why would he leave a letter for me, why not give it to Kakashi? Is there something only I should know."_ She made up her mind and opened the letter. She clasped it with both hands and read through it.

_November 31__st_

_00:00_

_Golden Chest_

_A-31_

She flipped the paper over but there was no more. She lowered the letter and looked at the sky. "What are you trying to tell me, Naruto-kun..." She stuffed the paper in her pocket and resumed her way into town.

There were two shinobis in black clothing hiding on the trees, ceremonial masks in the shape of animals covered their faces. They were carefully observing her every move."Finally, he has come out of hiding."

"Calm down, if we make a move now he might slip away again. Just suppress you chakra and keep quiet." Both of them jumped off the tree and started to follow Hinata from a distance. Hinata soon returned to the town but the others were not around so she decided to look around for them. She passed through the residential district when something caught her eye, a masked man war trying to rob a small satchel of coins from a young girl. He chased her through an alley and was closing in on her.

"Come on just give me the bag, no one has to get hurt." The little girl hugged the bag closely to her and tried to hind behind a dumpster.

"No! My granma needs medicine! Please mister, leave me alone!" She had started to cry and the other man just had an evil smirk in his face.

"And I need some booze, and perhaps some fun.." He extended his hand to try and grab her but a swift kick to the head pushed him to the other end of the alley. Hinata activated her byakugan and looked back at the child.

"Are you hurt?" The little girl was about to say something but then she started to scream. When Hinata looked back a big hand grabbed her and lifted her from the neck.

"Hmm, I think this one will be a lot more fun." He tried to unzip her jacket but Hinata kicked him away once more.

"Don't underestimate me!" She readied her stance for the gentle fist style and dashed forward. "Hakke Sanjūni Shō!*" She quickly delivered several swift but deadly hits towards her assailant's chakra points, the last hit she delivered with more force so he was pushed back and landed on a dumpster. Hinata relaxed and deactivated her byakugan. She walked back towards the small girl and bent down to her level.

"Are you all right?" The little girl nodded and crawled towards her.

"That man is always taking money from people. He says its for a good cause but he still scares me." Her voice began to break and some tears bean to fall.

"No, please don't cry. He can't hurt you anymore." Hinata embraced her and began stroking her head to try and calm her down. She stayed like that until she heard someone calling her name. The little girl got scared again and tried to hide under the dumpster but Hinata stopped her.

"Wait, don't be scared, They are my friends." She extended her hand and the little girl took it. Then her team appeared from within the streets and approached the alley. The first thing they noticed was the large man that lay unconscious in the dumpster. Sakura opened raised the lid to get a better look. Kakashi was the first to speak.

"What happened here Hinata?" She walked up to them still holding the hand of the little girl. "Who is she?" The girl hid behind Hinata started to play with her fingers.

"That man tried to rob her and also seemed to have the intentions of... Taking advantage." Kakashi grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him out of the dumpster.

"How odd, how come no one said anything? Everyone was just walking by as if nothing was happening. This is quite weird... Wait, what is this?" Kakashi was lifting the man's wrist. All over it were thick scars forming the kanji for "shadow". Sakura ran her fingers through the scars.

"What the hell! How can scars form such a precise shape!" Temari skimmed through his pockets and pulled out a small book. She opened it and her face suddenly shifted to a state of shock.

"Is this...," Kakashi took the book and looked through it himself. Every page had a picture of a shinobi, but not only from the Sand, there were pictures of ninja from every single hidden village. Some had red slashes through the whole page, like a bingo book.

"These are the shinobi that have gone missing! Every single one of them, from every single village!" Sakura took the book and started to flip through every page. When she reached a certain page she looked at it in disbelief and extended the book towards Kakashi.

"Kakashi, look..." Kakashi took the book and looked at it for a small while. He then lowered it and Hinata took it. He started to walk out but stopped and turned to look at the others.

"I guess this means we should be hurrying up, it seems we are not the only ones looking." When Hinata looked at the page there was a picture of Naruto from his days in Konoha. There was a message written in thick letters that read "Capture at once!"

* Eight Trigrams Thirty Two Palms


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

_Capture at Once_

Hinata couldn't believe what she was reading. For some reason a group of shinobi started kidnapping people who are never seen again. And now their next target was HIM. Her heart started racing and a couple of tears threatened to come out.

"Hinata, come on." Sakura took the book from her and pulled her out of the alley by the hand. When they were out she turned to face her. "This is no time to worry. We still have enough time to find him first. If he had his face still in the book it means that they haven't found him yet." Hinata wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"You're right Sakura. We have to find him! But first..." She turned to look at the small girl who was a couple of steps behind them. "Hey, what's your name?"

"I'm Irelia."

"Irelia, that's a beautiful name." She smiled at the girls and she smiled back. "So Irelia, where are your parents?" The little girl's expression suddenly changed to sadness. She lowered her head and spoke in a shaky voice.

"My mommy and daddy left for a mission a long time ago but they never came back. Granma has been taking care of me but... I miss them." She started to cry and once again Hinata hugged her, but this time she lifted her up and held her in her arms.

"Come on, let's go find your granma." They started walking through the town until Temari spoke up.

"Say Hinata... Do you even know where to go?" Hinata stopped dead in her track, she turned around and laughed nervously.

"Gomen, Temari-san." She gently shook Irelia to wake her up. "Irelia-chan." She moved a little and opened her eyes slightly. "Where is your granma?" She rubbed her eyes and blinked a couple of times. She looked around and motioned for Hinata to let her down. When she was on her feet she grabbed Hinata's hand and started to run through the streets.

"It's this way, my granny lives by the big trees!" Irelia guided them through the market and various streets of the town, and eventually the found themselves in the farming district once again. Then rows of various fruit producing trees became visible in the horizon, and at the other end stood a small wooded cabin. When they got closer to it the front door flew open and an elderly woman ran out towards them.

"Irelia! Irelia!" The little girl let go of Hinata's hand and ran towards her. The woman opened her arms and lifted the little girl in the air.

"I was so worried!" The woman lowered her and started to examine her. "Are you okay? Does something hurt?" Irelia shook her head and pointed back towards the others.

"The mean man tried to hurt me, but this nice lady helped me." The woman recognized her immediately.

"Oh its you! The young lassie with the lavender hair." She took her hands into her own and bowed down. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

"It was no problem really, but... Who was that man? It seems your granddaughter knew him." The womans expression changed to one of shock. She then sighed and turned back towards Irelia.

"Irelia, my dear, go play inside." The little girl nodded and obediently entered the house. When she was gone the old woman turned to Hinata and continued speaking. "As all of you might know by now all of the shinobi left this are due to safety issues. At first the town was pretty much unchanged but one day THEY showed up. They said that they would kill anyone who doesn't do as they say. Pretty soon they started taking money, food, clothing, in some cases they even kidnap people right off their homes. None of us has the capability to fight back. We are defenseless."

"But why haven't you asked for help from Suna or the Land of Rivers?" Sakura asked but the woman just shook her head.

"You think we haven't tried? Someone tried to send a letter hidden in a fruit cart a couple of years ago but they found it. The man was hanged in the middle of the market and they said that anyone who tried to do that again would follow the same fate. Since then they have been thoroughly searching everything that comes in and out."

"But why don't you sneak out?" This time Kakashi was the one to ask the question but the woman again shook her head in denial.

"We can't." She rolled up the sleeve on her right arm. Engraved on her forearm was a small jutsu formula. "They put a big barrier around the whole town, these prevent us from leaving. If we cross the barrier we will be shocked to DEATH!" The woman fell to her knees and started sobbing. 'My husband, I lost my own husband." She was crying on the ground. Hinata knelt down beside her and took her hands into her own.

"We will help you." The woman smiled kindly at her.

"You are far too kind but... I can't ask you to do something so dangerous." Sakura stepped forward with a determined expression.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing while they keep on causing trouble. We are going to stop them."

"This town is still a part of the Land of Air. It is my duty as a shinobi from Suna to set things straight!" Temari said. Hinata smiled at her friends and then looked at the woman.

"Don't worry we are going to stop them," She then got up and helped the woman to her feet, "you have my word." Then she turned around and together everyone left back to town. On the way Kakashi approached Hinata.

"Hinata." She turned around to look at him.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei?"

"It seemed that that woman knew you from somewhere. Where have you seen her before?"

"Oh yes. I umm.. When we were looking for leads on Naruto I passed through the farms and she approached me with a letter." She walked a few more steps before she realized something. "Oh yeah! The letter!" She dug her hand into her pocket and gave the piece of paper to Kakashi, he read it several times before he handed it back.

"Do you have any idea what it means?" Hinata looked down at the paper.

_November 31__st_

_00:00_

_Golden Chest_

_A-31_

"I guess that 00:00 is referring to a specific hour?"

"Midnight." Temari said.

"Most likely, but what about the other lines?" Kakashi asked.

"November 31st? That makes no sense! November only has 30 days. Leave it up to Naruto to write gibberish." Suddenly Hinata seemed to remember something.

"Actually, Sakura-san, I think I know what he means. You see...

FLASHBACK

It is the winter season in Konoha, pure white snow blankets every corner of the village. All of the children are outside building snowmen and there are sweet smells lingering in the air. We can see two people walking through town in winter attire. They are Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Hinata. They seem to enjoy each other's company as they are both laughing while walking.

"I tell you, we were laughing so hard that milk was actually shooting off my nose." He made weird movements with his hands and Hinata was laughing at his story.

"Naruto-kun I don't believe you." He laughed with her and they kept on walking while chatting about their daily lives. Eventually they reached a park that was completely covered in snow. Naruto ran to it and started to play around like a child.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?" He didn't stop his games, he just laughed even more.

"I am playing Hinata-chan! Come on, you too!" He pulled her along to the middle of the park where he stopped, dropped to the ground and started to make snow angels.

"You seem to like snow a lot!" Hinata said. Naruto sat up and started to collect snow in his hands.

"Snow is one of the few things that reminds me of my parents. Mom would always complain that it was far too cold to go out, but Dad would always play with me." He looked straight at the ground. His lip started to tremble and a single tear fell to the ground. Hinata was about to say something, but he wiped it off. "But, the thing I remember the most is November 31st."

"Naruto-kun, November only has 30 days." Naruto shook his head from side to side saying no.

"Not on leap years. I know most people say February gets that day but, my dad loved winter so much that he decided to add one day to November. People would always get confused but, you know... I liked it. Anyways..." He stood up and offered her his hand. "Come on, lets go grab a bite to eat. I'm starving!"

END FLASHBACK

"Huh.. So we have to find snow?" Sakura asked.

"Impossible, this place might be on the border but it is still the Land of Wind. Snow doesn't fall here." Temari said.

"Did you do anything special that day, Hinata?" Hinata once again started to think.

"Well as I said he treated me to lunch, he said that he wanted to have a last good time, I now know what he meant." She was about to get lost on her thoughts but Kakashi stoped her.

"Focus, we have no time to loose!"

"So we only need to find a restaurant. Knowing Naruto he would pick ramen." Sakura said but Hinata shook her head.

"That day we didn't go for ramen. He said that he didn't want to annoy me with so much of it. We instead went for... Dango, I think."

"Well there is only one place in the village that sells it!" Kakashi said.

"But what about the other two lines?" (Golden Chest, A-31) "The place is not called Golden Chest! And the address is certainly not A-31."

"Well, for now that is all the information we have, so lets head there at night and just hope that we are on the right track."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

"Is this the place?" Kakashi looked at the sign hanging above their heads. It read _Dango Delicacies. _The street they were in was completely empty. Not a single person was around. Only the moon shone in the darkness of the night. They stood outside, looking everywhere for a clue as to what they were looking for, until Temari got bored.

"Well there has got to be something going on." She started to pace around until something caught her eye. She slowly approached the back alley of the restaurant. "Guys, come over here!" Everyone rushed to see what was going on, there was a large metal door in the wall. Temari got closer to it and suddenly the door's peephole slided open, two big black eyes stared back at them. Then a raspy and deep voice was heard.

"What is it yer looking for?" Kakashi stepped forward to answer.

"Hello, hum we are looking for a fugitive, young man, blond hair, and blue eyes. Have you seen him?" The peephole closed shut and the man spoke through the door.

"Not here, get lost!" Sakura scoffed.

"How rude! I should just kick the door open." Before anyone could stop her she got in front of the door, pulled her leg back, gathered as much chakra as she could, and then swiftly kicked the door with more than enough strength. But the door did not budge, instead Sakura grabbed her foot and winced in pain.

"Ahh! Shit!" She fell to the ground and was hugging her leg. "What the hell is up with that door?" Hinata walked to the door and tapped it, the echoing metallic sound made it seem as if the door was only about 20 cm thick, her kick should have demolished it, unless...

"BYAKUGAN!" She examined the door and found that her suspicions were true. There was a powerful seal on the door that reinforced its strength immensely. "This d-door seems like it w-was designed to withstand a-anything.

"I'll say." Responded Sakura. She let go of her foot to try and heal it with her medical ninjutsu. She hovered her hands over her wound, the green aura and smooth humming soon appeared.

"I wonder what place is this, to have such protections." Kakashi said. He put his hand on his chin and closed his eye.

"Only place I know of that has such security is the Sunagakure bank."

"Impossible, there is only one bank here, and it is on the other side of town." Kakashi answered. Then Hinata gasped as she realized something. She dug around her pocket and pulled out the paper she had received from the old woman.

"Look e-everyone, the third l-line." She held up the paper with one hand and pointed at two specific words.

_November 31__st_

_00:00_

_**Golden Chest**_

_A-31_

"Do you think this is the "Golden Chest"? This dump!" Temari yelled. But then a small pebble hit a metal trashcan behind them, Temari was the only one to pay it any attention. She glanced around the rooftops, trying to catch something in the darkness.

"We have no other lead so we might as well give it a choice." By now Sakura was up and about, she was still limping a little, but she was more than capable of walking on her own. Kakashi knocked on the large door and stepped back. The peephole once again opened, and once again those dark eyes greeted them with indifference.

"Business?"

"We are looking for the Golden Chest." The peephole was closed shut, for a few seconds no sound came from the other side. Then several loud clicks were heard one after the other. A loud and metallic squeaking came from the rusty hinges opening. A large hallway could be seen, it seemed to stretch endlessly, lit dimly by a few lanterns. The door guard greeted them with a bow.

"My apologies, but you must know that the location of this place is known only to a selected few, and highly trusted, customers. I haven't seen you before, so I deduced you were thieves." Behind him stood a tall woman, she had a scar running along her cheek and an eyepatch covered her right eye. Despite her rough expression she smiled at them.

"Welcome to the Golden Chest. What is your safe number?"

"Safe number?" Hinata looked at the letter. "Hum, A-31?" The woman dug her hand in her pocket and pulled out a small velvet notebook. She flipped through the pages and then closed it.

"I assume you must be Hyuga Hinata? We have been expecting you, the contents of the safe have been locked down for over 30 years."

"30 YEARS!" Kakashi exclaimed. "Do you know who made the deposit?"

"I am sorry sir, but we keep no record of faces, only names. Besides, do I look old enough to have been there at the time?"

"Well..." Sakura was about to say something when the woman turned to look at her. She was smiling but the killing intent could be felt for miles.

"NO! No, absolutely not! You look very young indeed!" Kakashi said while pulling Sakura back.

"Can we move this along." Temari said clearly getting impatient.

"Of course, Tsuyo, please show them the way." The woman walked back to a door on the far right and disappeared through it. The man she referred to as Tsuyo started to walk in the direction of the dark hallway, he stopped and turned to them.

"Please, follow me." He turned around and once more started to walk. Everyone just followed quietly. They had passed dozens of different doors until Tsuyo stopped, he turned to face a large golden door with several engraving running through it. There was a seal in it that held the door shut in place. Tsuyo lifted his right arm and slammed it on the seal.

"KAI!" For a moment nothing happened, but then the entire door shone brightly and then, it disappeared. But inside the safe were only three more doors, this time Tsuyo made hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground. The whole room started tearing apart, a large hole appeared on the ground and from it rose a stone pedestal with a huge opening in it.

"This room seems to have a large amount of security in it." Said Kakashi.

"Our clients are often very important people, and some of the objects stored are quite valuable. We need to make sure we are doing our best to ensure that they do not get stolen." Tsuyo walked to the opening and pulled out a large chest. He opened it and handed over its contents.

"All of this for a piece of paper!" Said Temari, Hinata received the papers, when she looked over them her face suddenly went blank.

"These are not just ordinary papers." Kakashi took them and read what they said. His eyes burst open and he looked at the papers in disbelief, his hands even began to shake.

"This, this is..." Sakura grabbed the papers to read them herself. She gasped at what she saw.

"Impossible..."

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The woman was startled at the loud knocking on the door. Very few people know of their location. She walked up to the door and opened the peephole. Outside stood two men dressed in black wearing masks.

"How may I help you?" One of them stepped forward and lifted a small paper.

"Official business, you must open this door immediately!"

"Sorry boys, I swore no loyalty to any government. Especially yours." She was about to close the peephole when a gust of wind rushed in through it, she was pushed back against the wall. She was about to get up when she felt a kunai on her neck.

"Don't move." She looked up and saw one of the shinobi that were outside.

"How... How did you get past the barrier?" He once again showed her the permit.

"Official business." He then kicked her swiftly on the head and knocked her out. He lifted her up and draped her over his shoulder. He turned around and saw his teammate.

"The area is clear of witnesses, no sign of our objective either." The other man started to walk towards the same hallway the others walked through a couple of minutes ago.

"Then we keep on looking, but this time, we better do it off the record." He pulled out the permit and wrinkled it into a ball to toss it away. When it landed a small corner was still visible, it held a small seal. The seal of Konohagakure.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

"These are... assassination orders, from the Konoha elder council." Sakura said in disbelief. "And the objective is..."

"THE YONDAIME HOKAGE!*" Everyone turned around to see who had spoken. In the entrance of the safe stood two men dressed in black wearing masks. One of them was carrying the woman who greeted them at the entrance of the bank. "Now I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take those papers. And since you all have read them we will have to take you as well and erase your memories.

"Like hell you will, what makes you think we will go with you just because you said so!" Temari exclaimed while pulling out her battle fan.

"Well, should you refuse I guess we have no other choice than to kill you all, starting with this woman." The man who had her on his shoulder threw her to the ground and held a sword to her neck. "It would be such a shame."

"Bastards! Who the hell are you?" Sakura was pissed.

"Since these are your last moments you at least deserve to know. You may call us So and Ka. But enough of that." He pressed the sword further down and a trickle of blood came out. "What will you do?" Everyone stood still thinking of how to avoid being captured and also without loosing any lives. Everyone was quiet until Ka sneezed.

"Excuse me. I guess some sand still found its way deep into the vaults! That's really weird..." Temari had a sly smile on her face. She then dropped to the ground and screamed.

"Duck!" Everyone but the two in the entrance did as she said.

"What are you-" He could not finish his sentence before a powerful hand made of sand rose from the ground and engulfed them both.

"Sabaku Sōsō!*" Gaara's voice echoed through the room and the sand instantly compressed around the two assailants. Gaara walked into the room with his hand still raised. Tsuyo walked over to the woman and picked her up. When Gaara unclenched his fist the sand dropped to the ground but, strangely enough no blood came out, nor any of the two shinobi.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Everyone turned to see that the masked men were standing on the other side of the room, completely unharmed. "If it isn't the Ichibi.*" The one who once carried the woman, So, lifted his sword. "Move along, you have no business here, monster!" Gaara just stayed quiet and walked between the Konoha team and Temari, and the two intruders.

"The safety of my family IS my business!" He lifted both his arms and once more large amounts of sand rose and crashed down on them. But again they both appeared somewhere else without a single grain of sand on them.

"Family huh? Such a sweet and pathetic bond." So sheathed his sword and started to weave signs. "Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu!*" He took a deep breath and then released massive amounts of fire. In mid-air the flames took the shape of a giant dragon that was flying rapidly towards Temari. She reacted by whipping out her fan and blowing powerful gusts of wind to try and repel the attack. But it had the opposite effect, the flames consumed the technique and grew twice as large.

"Damn!" She cursed the elemental disadvantage that she was in. The fire was getting closer and just before in burned them to bits a sand wall shielded them.

"Nice try, but it will not be enough." So said. "You see, when sand reaches 1760° Celsius it undergoes a physical change in which it crystallizes to form glass. Curiously enough glass itself melts at 1500° Celsius so the reaction creates liquid glass. So now instead of fire you shall be bathed in a burning and rather sticky downpour." And just like he said the sand began to change, it turned into a clear goo that came pouring down towards them. A drop fell on Sakura's hand, she winced at the pain and tried to remove it, but it was stuck like glue. They tried to get away but it seemed the wave moved a lot faster. Gaara tried to contain it but it seemed that the molten glass kept its temperature so all of the sand quickly turned to glass as soon as it made contact. They were about to be engulfed but Hinata stopped running and activated her byakugan.

"Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō!*" She swiftly rotated her hands, emitting thin but tough chakra streams to form a protective barrier around herself and her friends, Gaara included. The molten glass crashed down on it with tremendous force, and the heat could very much be felt. But Hinata managed to maintain the barrier long enough for the glass to solidify. A small bubble had formed around them, effectively trapping them.

"Nice job but... What now?" Said Sakura. Then Kakashi cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Now, now we attack." He said as his hands came up and lifted his headband, he opened his once covered eye to reveal his sharingan. He then lowered his hand and sparks started to come out of it. Then the complete lightning cutter was formed and he thrusted it on the glass. The impact resonated on the whole room and the glass shattered immediately. So and Ka covered their faces to block the incoming glass shards, but in their distractions Kakashi rammed through Ka with the lightning cutter. This time though the attack did land, he had pierced his left shoulder. He winced in pain and held on to his wounded arm. Kakashi jumped back and he stopped his jutsu, his hand returning to normal.

"Damn," So said. "Well it seems that Kakashi of the Sharingan lives up to his name. For now we shall leave but beware," he lifted his hand and formed a tiger seal. " Next time, you WILL come with us." A blinding flash covered their position and by the time it was over they were gone. Kakashi relaxed and lifted his arm to lower his headband and cover his sharingan. He then turned around and pointed towards Gaara.

"You, what the hell is going on here? Who were those shinobi and why do you have this?" He pointed towards the papers in Sakura's hands. Gaara closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at all of them.

"Would you believe me if I told you?"

"Well I-" Kakashi was about to continue talking when Temari interrupted him.

"I hardly believe that my brother would lie. He is not that kind of person." Everyone turned to look at Temari and then at Gaara, waiting for some kind of explanation.

"Thank you. Now I can only tell you half of the story, the rest is not up to me."

"What do you-" Sakura was interrupted by Gaara.

"The rest is not up to me because the rest I do not know. Now first off those shinobi who attacked you were Konohagakure anbu." Everyone but Gaara was visibly shocked a this.

"W-what did you say?" Sakura said. Hinata had her hands covering her mouth in disbelief.

"It's true and what they are after are those papers you are holding. They have been after them for years. But fortunately until now they have been unsuccessful in retrieving them."

"This is... Ridiculous!" Everyone turned to see that Kakashi was the one talking. "First of the Hokage would never send his own shinobi to capture and possibly kill his own people, its just not possible. Second the death of the Yondaime is no mysterious plot. We all know who did it." He looked down at the ground. "Speak of the devil..." Slow footsteps could be heard coming from the doorway, when they stopped a voice was heard.

"It's been a long time Kakashi." Everyone turned to look at the man who had just spoken and they were all left speechless, except Gaara.

"4 years in fact... Naruto."

1st *: Fourth Hokage

2nd *: Sand Burial

3rd *: One-Tail (Beast)

4th *: Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique

5th *: Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

"Naruto..." Kakashi turned around to face him, the expression on his face showed anger, but Naruto looked at him with indifference.

"Naruto!" Hinata ran towards him, but Kakashi extended his arm to stop her.

"Naruto, we are here to bring you back." Said Sakura but he dismissed her comment.

"I have no place to go back to..." Kakashi furiously walked towards him.

"Naruto, you have caused enough trouble already, its time for you to stop this stupid adventure of yours."

"And do what! Go back and have an axe slice off my head!"

"Anything that they will do to you will be entirely your fault!"

"I told you already someone framed me!"

"Bullshit!"

"Look at the papers Kakashi!" He pointed towards the documents on Sakura's hands.

"For all I know those documents are fake! Enough of this-"

"Would you just listen to me? "

"Why would I! You are a murderer!"

"I told you it wasn't me."

"Then why would you run away huh? Why would you run if you knew it wasn't you?"

"I ran because I knew you would all blame me, specially you."

"He was my master, Naruto."

"He was my FATHER." Everyone was silent after he said that.

"That only makes matters even worse." Kakashi pulled out a kunai and got into battle position. "I'm sorry Naruto, I truly am. You were once my student, but now I... we must treat you like a criminal." When he said that the rest of his team also got into their fighting stances, but one of them looked hesitant. Hinata was trembling and her eyes got a little teary.

"Perhaps in the end you were right, Naruto." Gaara said.

"What do you-" Temari was about to finish her sentence when a sandstorm raged around the room, they covered their eyes and tried to keep track of the Jinchuriki. But the sand was too strong and when it finally ended they were gone along with-

"Hinata!" Sakura called out, but there was no answer.

"It seems they especaed with her. Their chakras are gone." Kakashi said as he relaxed his stance. He looked back towards Tsuyo and the woman who lay on his arms, still unconscious. Sakura rushed towards them and examined her.

"She'll be alright, she'll feel a light headache and some nausea but no major complications. I'm sorry that we caused so much trouble." Tsuyo got up and carried the woman with him.

"Don't worry, we have suffered worst. Only last week a group of over twelve shinobi raided us. Strangely enough the only took one item." He started to walk out but Temari stopped him.

"Wait! What did they take?" Tsuyo stopped in his tracks and looked back at them.

"Oh it was only a dusty old scroll, nothing important." Having said that he walked out of the room. They stayed quiet for a while until Kakashi also walked out of the room, when he was out of sight Sakura ran towards him.

"Wait!" She grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "What are you doing?"

"Going to the inn." He said calmly.

"You are going to give up? Come on, I thought you were better than that!"

"I am not giving up, I am getting some rest. It's been a long day and we need to figure out how to find Hinata quickly." He said calmly.

"Don't forget about those thugs in town, we also need to take care of them." Said Temari. Kakashi nodded at her and started to walk out.

"We'll get some rest and figure out how to proceed with all this."

Somewhere in the Suna Desert, present day.

Hinata was slowly waking up. She rubbed her eyes and slowly adjusted to her surroundings. Wherever she was was most likely a cave. It was dark, humid, and warm. She looked around a little more. There was a small doorway in the wall in front of her. There seemed to be no windows. In all four walls were a few candles that did a decent job in lighting up the room. The bed she lay in was at the leftmost part of the room and in the other end was a small table with a glass and a plate full of food. She walked over to it and picked up a piece of bread. She examined it from every angle possible. Then she got it close to her face, but instead of eating she sniffed it.

"You don't seriously think I would poison you." She jumped in surprise while making a little "eep" sound. She lowered the bread and looked at the person who spoke to her.

"N-naruto-kun..." She blushed deeply but kept her eyes on him. He smiled at her, entertained at the fact that she still got so nervous around him.

"How are you feeling? Any headaches or itchy eyes?" She softly shook her head to say no.

"W-why do y-you ask?" Naruto lowered his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small vial filled with a vibrant red dust. "What is t-that?"

"Sleep powder. Gaara mixed some with the sand that surrounded you only. When you were knocked out I carried you with us." He scratched the back of his head and gave her a sheepish smile. "Gomen, Hinata, but.." He lowered his arm and his expression got serious. "I needed to talk to you."

"About?" She was still a little nervous but seemed to have calmed down somewhat. She looked at him and waited for his answer. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, when he opened them he slowly walked over to the table and sat on the only chair beside it. He picked up a small apple and took a bite from it.

"You remember what was inside the safe in the Golden Chest?" Hinata though about that moment. When they pulled out the papers and she read the top line.

"Yeah, they were some a-assassination orders, and the target was... Y-you know. But, N-Naruto, how did you get them?" He snickered.

"It's funny how that is what you ask, instead of if they are real."

"I have no reason to believe they are not." He looked straight at her for some sort of doubt, but her gaze showed complete confidence in her answer, she didn't even stutter.

He got up and was about to walk out when he felt her arms wrap around his neck and her face nuzzling on his chest. But he just stood there like a statue neither returning the hug nor pushing her away.

"Come on, it's late, you need to rest." She let go but she looked hurt, she walked towards the bed with her gaze towards the ground. When she was about to let herself fall on the bed she heard Naruto speak.

"Good to see you again, Hina." She heard his footsteps getting farther and farther away until they could be heard no longer. She layed down on the bed but this time she had a small smile on her face.

"Why didn't you talk to her?" Gaara asked. Naruto closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

"I don't know. It's all to much for me I guess."

"Are you still beating yourself up over that?"

"It's not so simple."

"Maybe it is..." Having said that Gaara walked off, leaving Naruto alone to deal with his thoughts.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

Somewhere in the Frontier Between the Land of Air and the Land of Rivers, present day.

There is a large man sitting down on a wooden desk. On it lay a bunch of papers and old books that he is meticulously reading. Then three shinobi appear in front of him, and they bow down. The one in the middle starts to speak.

"Sorry for the intrusion my lord, but there seems to be a problem." He paid no attention to those words, he didn't even look up. "Hinomura has fallen." This time the other man did pay attention, he lowered his books and stared at the shinobi in front of him.

"Who is responsible?" His subordinate swallowed nervously.

"It seems that some Konoha nin have done it. He was captured and is currently being transported to the Land of Rivers. Furthermore, it seems that they have started to look for information about us, sir." The man got up from his desk and looked out a window that was behind his desk, the skies are dark and the only dim light came from the moon.

"You know what to do."

"But sir, what about the intruders from Konoha."

"For now, let them rummage through the town. I doubt they will find anything useful." He sat down again and resumed looking through his papers. The shinobi in front of him left as quickly as they came and the room was quiet once more. After a few minutes of complete silence a twisted smile appeared on his face.

"Finally, after years of planing, it will all come to be. The only thing that still won't work is THEM. . But no matter, I can wait a couple more days. After all, I have already waited for 50 years."

Bordering Town in the Land of Air, present day.

"Oh my god we have talked to EVERYONE in town and still no one will tell us anything about these thugs." Sakura complained while letting herself fall on a nearby bench.

"By now we can say for certain that they are scared of something. Remember that woman who ran into her house as soon as we mentioned the thug." Kakashi opened his Icha Icha book and started reading. "We need a different approach. Otherwise we'll get nowhere."

"Seriously Kakashi, you're reading NOW!" Sakura bickered but Kakashi kept calm.

"It helps me think." Sakura sighed and crossed her arms. Temari was about to speak when something caught her eye. She looked high above them and saw a small hawk flying in circles.

"Oh god, please no!" Everyone turned to look at her and found that her once indifference face was now filled with shock. She lifted up her arm and whistled an inaudible tune. But apparently it worked since the bird immediately flew back down. "This messenger hawk belonged to the division that was escorting our prisoner back to Suna." Sakura gasped.

"But that means." She said.

"It means they have been attacked," Kakashi answered, "most likely they are all dead. Temari!' The woman in question turned to look at him. "Send word to Sunagakure, tell them to start searching for the lost squad. And if possible tell them to gather any clues as to what happened." Temari seemed annoyed at him giving her orders but accepted none the less.

"I'll go myself." With that she sprinted off out of their sight. Leaving them to deal with the rogue shinobi threat on their own. Kakashi stood quiet for a little while reading his book. But something didn't seem right to Sakura.

"Kakashi, Why haven't you turned the page? You have been reading the same page for over 15 minutes now." Kakashi turned to look at her and put on a sheepish smile.

"It's just that this page is really interesting!" Sakura did not buy it but for now it had to do. There were more pressing matters at the time.

"Nevermind that and close the book, we have to keep looking." Kakashi nodded at her and started to walk towards the town market once more. On a distant tree two shinobi were looking down at their every move.

"We should make a move now, there are only two remaining." Based on the pitch of the voice the speaker was a woman.

"Make no mistake, So and Ka have identified the leader as Kakashi of the Sharingan. We should thread carefully." The woman nodded at her companion, whose voice identified him as a man. They both flickered away without leaving so much as a trace.

"Kakashi." Sakura whispered.

"I know." She nodded at his response and kept on walking, carefully observing their surroundings. Eventually the road lead them through the surrounding forest. No chakra signature could be felt so they kept on walking. But then a faint sound was heard.

"Did you hear that?" Sakura said. And again it came. A child's cry. Without thinking she ran towards the source of the cries. Kakashi kept yelling something behind her but she was rustling through so many leaves that she couldn't hear him. Eventually she reached a small clearing, the figure of a small boy was kneeling over a small pond. The soft weeps resonated through the air. Sakura walked up to the boy and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you lost?" Her expression turned into shock as she realized that the crying boy was only a puppet. Loud clicking noises were heard as the "boy" turned his head round completely. Instead of a tender face there was a devious and mechanical grin. The mouth clicked open and a vast cloud of poison smoke quickly covered the entire clearing. Unfortunately for them, they both had inhaled the fumes.

"Sakura, what do you think?" Kakashi asked as he fell to his knees. Sakura tried to stay standing but soon followed his fate.

"Sleeping agent. I think.. We are going to ..." After saying that she fell to the ground with a loud thud. Kakashi tried to fight it but the poison was too strong. So he did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed a kunai and cut his hand. He lowered it to the ground and tried to focus some chakra. But he quickly collapsed as well. When the smoke had dissipated three figures stood around them.

"This was the legendary Kakashi of the Sharingan? Hah! Legendary my ass." A really big man had spoken. He was wearing traditional sand shinobi attire, but he was wielding a giant mace. He spat on the ground and started laughing.

"The only reason they are out is thanks to my genius creations." A woman had spoken this time. She had vibrant green hair and her eyes had slits like a snake's. She approached the little trap doll and hugged it close to her body. She started whispering to it as if it was a living child.

"I don't care about your freaky toys. We have to report back to the boss." Who had spoken seemed like the leader of their small unit. He had brown hair that hung over his face and chocolate brown eyes that gave him a very careless appearance. Half his face was covered in bandages and he wielded a giant chain with a hook attached at the end.

"Fuck you, these are my children." Said the viperous woman. None the less the duo had stopped arguing and proceeded to lift the knocked out shinobi into their shoulders and then they ran off into the forest.

"It seems they have been outsmarted this time." The mysterious duo that had been tailing them had just witnessed how they had fallen victims to a simple trap, the woman seemed confident that they had been defeated, but her partner was not so sure.

"It was too easy. Something is not right." Just then he felt a hand grabbing his neck and lifting him from his feet. When he looked at their attackers, he was left speechless. "W-what? How..." Sakura was keeping the grip on his neck tight to prevent him from screaming. Kakashi was currently holding his companion in a headlock, he was holding a piece of cloth that most likely contained a very powerful drug, since she was out within seconds. He let go of her and walked up to him.

"Now you will tell us everything you know, or I'll make sure the next time you go to the bathroom you will have to shit through you mouth!" Normally anyone hearing that would have laughed, but his cold eyes showed he was dead serious. The mysterious man gulped nervously and shifted his gaze between Sakura and Kakashi.

"I- I..." Kakashi sighed and lifted his hands towards his covered eyes.

"Very well, we'll do it the hard way." When he uncovered his eye he stared straight at the man's eyes. His following screams could be heard for miles. When they were done the man fell to the ground unconscious and Kakashi covered his eye again. Sakura was speechless at the word she had just heard.

"Damn, this is worse than we thought." Sakura could only nod at his remark. "Well it seems we can't do this on our own."

"The hell you can't." That was the last thing either of them heard before their consciousness disappeared. Sakura tried to look at their assailant. Ebony unruly hair that swayed with the wind. Pale skin that seemed to reflect the sun's rays. And a pair of eyes that seemed to stare at your very soul.

"Sasuke..."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional. Except for one part that I paraphrased from another movie, just in this one episode, I know you guys will find it.

Sakura could hear the soft crackling of fire. Her eyes were too heavy for her to open them but the sound it made is unmistakable. A soft wind was blowing and guessing by the sound of the crickets it was already nighttime. She tried to open her eyes again, but they barely moved, at least until...

"I see that you are awake." No matter how tired she was feeling, her eyes opened wide to see if her ears were not lying.

"S-sasuke?" She turned to look at the man who had spoken.

"It's been some time, Sakura." There he was, speaking to her as if it were nothing. As if what he had once done never happened.

"What the hell are YOU doing here?" Suddenly the events that had taken place before she passed out came rushing to her head. "You BASTARD! Why the hell did you capture us? I swear to god if you have anything to do with the shinobi that are kidnapping others I will personally cut off your pride!" She screamed at him with all the anger that she had welled up inside her, but he only smirked at her.

"Still as annoying as ever." She had had enough. She tried with as much force as she could muster to break the ropes that were binding her hands and feet. But to no avail, they didn't budge.

"Don't bother. These are special ropes that constantly drain chakra from anyone they touch." He stood up and walked over to her. When he was right in front of her he put his hand on the grip of his sword.

"Wait, what are you doing?" She asked nervously. In one swift move he sliced through his intended target, the bindings on her hands.

"Now you may remove the others on your own." She lay there dumbfounded at what she just witnessed. He turned to look that she had yet to move and smirked. "Don't tell me that you can't." This snapped her back into reality. Seeing that she couldn't tear them apart she pulled out a kunai and cut the rope. All of the thoughts she had about killing him suddenly vanished, and in their place stood one question.

"What are you doing here?" He didn't turn to look at her, he just stared up at the nigh sky.

"Relax, I'm not the enemy." She scoffed at him.

"Well you sure have a weird way of showing it." Then something inside her head clicked. "Where is Kakashi?" The answer was given in the form of a loud snore that came out of a sleeping figure. He was lying down next to the fireplace with his visible eye closed shut. She was about to speak up again when Sasuke beat her to it.

"The dose he received was slightly larger than yours."

"Why? You are not so careless as to do that on accident." She chuckled at her joke. Sasuke turned to look at her, but instead of smirking his face was dead serious.

"I need to talk to you." She looked at him, trying to figure out what this was about.

"Couldn't you just wait until our mission was over?" He shook his head.

"If you had followed the bandits, you would have died. And if you had retreated, they would have gotten suspicious, and eventually you would have been killed." Once again, Sakura scoffed.

"Do you seriously think it would be that easy?" She mocked him.

"You have no idea who you're facing."

"They are just a couple of rogue shinobi, nothing serious."

"You don't understand, as usual. This is not a group that just appeared out thin air. They have powerful allies, and they have interfered in more stuff than you think." She looked at him and then back at the sleeping Kakashi.

"Why did you not let him hear this?"

"Because this is about the incident that occurred over 25 years ago. The death of Nohara Rin." Her eyes went blank and she was left speechless.

"B-but, that was no accident. It had been a plot against the leaf. She died to protect her home." Sasuke shook his head.

"No, she died to anger her nation. How else do you think she would have been captured so easily within our borders, if not for cooperation from someone of Konoha."

"What are you saying."

"I'm saying that all that has happened for the last 60 years has been planned. The release of the Sanbi*, the death of Rin, the attack of the Kyuubi*, the death of the Third, the invasion of Orochimaru... Even the death of the fourth." She gasped and looked at him in disbelief.

"No, that's just... Stupid. All that you're saying is just, ridiculous. And... Why am I even listening to you?'

"Because deep down, you know I'm right. Deep down, you too want to believe that Naruto is innocent for his father's death."

"And what would you know? You are not even from our country, for all I know you could be on some spying mission from Kirigakure."

"You want to know why you should believe me?" He said to her in a hushed tone. "Because I was the one who killed the Yondaime." When he said that he ran off into the darkness of the night. Sakura stood without moving for a while. Her brain trying to process what she had just heard.

_Should I tell him?_ She thought. Kakashi had been so focused on how to hunt down Naruto, that he never stopped to think if he should. Everyone had branded him as the murderer, no doubt about that. He had run off the same day that his father was found dead. But now Sasuke comes and says that he was the one to kill him. Maybe she should wait to say something, she would wait to convince others until she believed it herself. Little did she know that Kakashi's uncovered eye, was open agape.

1st* Sanbi= Thre tailed beast

2nd* Kyuubi= Nine tailed beast


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

Konohagakure, 4 years in the past.

Hiashi Hyuuga was known throughout the whole shinobi world for being the ruthless leader of the Hyuuga. He always based his personal decisions on his clan's ancient traditions. So it was no shock to anyone when the word got out that he was planning to marry of one of his two daughters. And it would be decided in a duel. Within hours people started putting bets on who would win the fight. Some sided with Hanabi and the rest with Hinata. It was one of the largest scandals of the village since the invasion of Orochimaru. So, naturally, Naruto found out the last moment on the day that they were fighting.

"NANI! Hinata-chan will be fighting with her sister to see who gets married!" He started screaming all around the village, sprinting top speed towards the Hyuuga compound. But he was stopped in the front door.

"HALT! Under orders of Hiashi-sama we are not to let you in!" Several guards were stationed along the entrance.

"I'm sorry but I have to go in!" He said with a determined smile. Then he charged towards the door. Some of the guards were shocked at his reckless outburst, but it was to be expected from him. So they all braced themselves for his advancement. He started to scream as he closed in on them. But before he could reach them he jumped, high into the air. He then grasped two strings that hung from his waist and screamed in a mocking voice.

"DATTEBAYO IDIOTS!" When he pulled the strings he exploded in a large puff of orange smoke and confetti. The small battalion of guards stood there dumbfounded, refusing to believe that they had fallen for such a ridiculous trick. When they regained their composture their commander yelled.

"He couldn't have gone far. Spread out and find him! Lord Hiashi made it very clear that no one should interrupt them today!" As they spread out no once seemed to notice a single orange piece of paper that flew over to the main building. When it touched the ground it transformed back into a tall and loud shinobi. He smirked and swiftly made his way through the compound. When the faint sound of loud chatter reached his ears he was startled.

"Huh?" He ran to where he thought the sound originated. It was the Hyuuda's personal humiliating ring, their dojo. In it Hinata was bowing down to her father, he looked seriously pissed. At first glance he thought that, maybe she had lost. But she had not a single scratch on her. Her hair was still tidy and in place. Her sleeves were rolled up both other than that her clothes still were in perfect condition. Hanabi on the other hand had some dirt in her clothes and a scrape in her knee, but she didn't look ashamed or angry, she was worried.

"How dare you go against my word?" Hiashi looked angry, he was sternly looking down on his elder daughter. The entire Hyuuga council was standing around them, murmuring inaudible whispers that could only be harsh judgment.

"W-with all due respect father, I will not hurt my sister." She said as calmly as she could, but her voice and expression were starting to break.

"You are weak, a weak fool. This is not the time to show your petty compassion. You had to fight!" He screamed even louder. Naruto was looking at the scene in front of him, doubting wether he should act or not.

"I won't hurt my family." Hinata answered weakly, some tears were threatening to come out.

"Why you!" He raised his hand and brought it down for a painful slap. Hinata had closed her eyes to brace herself for the pain. But it never came. When she looked up Naruto was standing between her and her father. Holding his hand with his own and an angry look upon his face.

"What the hell are you doing? Trying to hurt your own daughter like that!" Hiashi pulled back his hand and looked at him.

"It seems my guards were unable to stop you, I should have expected it. You being the son of the Fourth and all." He said with fake cordiality. "May I ask what is it you are doing here, this does not concern you."

"Damn right it concerns me, who do you think you are? Making your daughter fight to see who won't get married. Hanabi is still a kid and Hinata deserves to have some freedom in that matter."

"Step aside, you have no idea what you are talking about..." If Naruto didn't know better he would have thought that Hiashi was trying to tell him something else. But it was impossible...

"Naruto-kun." He heard a soft voice calling out to him. When he turned around he saw Hinata smiling at him. "Don't worry about me. Just please, calm down." Naruto looked at her and then at Hiashi. He sighed and relaxed himself. He walked over to Hinata and leaned his face close to her ear.

"You better tell me what's going on." She felt his hot breath and her heart started racing, a small blush appeared on her face. When he was done talking he walked out, slowly and looking at the ground. He walked aimlessly through the village. All around him people were looking at him and whispering, but when he turned to look at them they quickly turned around and pretended they didn't do anything.

Being a Jinchuriki and the son of the Hokage at the same time causes that effect on people. Most would avoid him and bow down, wether out of fear or respect. Some few brave ones took their time to actually talk to him. Most of those people were shinobi like himself, civilians tended to be more on the afraid side. He didn't know what would be worse, seeing people treat him like a complete outcast or have them show a hollow and fake respect. He needed to clear his mind, and there was but one place in which to do that.

"One large bowl of pork ramen!" He yelled enthusiastically. Ayame and Teuchi smiled immediately when they recognized him.

"Hey Naruto-kun! Coming right up!" He sat down on his usual stool and waited for his food while reminiscing about the Hyuugas. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize his food was already in front of him.

"Naruto, eat up or it's going to get cold." Teuchi said with a small laugh. Naruto snapped back to reality and sheepishly grinned.

"Itadakimasu!" He then started to gobble down the bowl at record breaking speed. When he was done he ordered another, and another, and another. By the third bowl he had completely forgotten about the scene he had witnessed at the Hyuuga compound, until.

"N-Naruto-kun." He turned around with a small noodle popping out of the corner of his mouth. Hinata was standing there and when she saw the small noodle she giggled. When he realized it he quickly slurped the noodle and turned completely towards her.

"Hey Hinata-chan! What brings you by?" She seemed to be a little shock by his question, since he had seem very upset a couple of hours ago. But she quickly deducted that his love for ramen must have erased all other thoughts.

"I wanted to talk to you about what you saw at the compound." This seemed to spark something in his head, his face turned serious and he tossed some money on the counter.

"Come on let's go for a walk." He turned towards Ichiraku. "Arigato, Ayame-chan, Teuchi-san!" He waved them goodbye and started to walk with Hinata towards the park.

"Okay, spill it. I want to know what happened." He blurted out. She once again giggled at his antics. She then sighed and looked up at the sky.

"Where to begin..."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

"I guess... From the beginning, maybe?" Naruto said sheepishly. Hinata smiled and blushed a little before speaking.

"O-okay. First off you do know why I was fighting, right?" He slowly nodded at her question.

"Word spread fast enough." He said, trying to hide the fact that he had been clueless up until a couple hours ago.

"B-but there is something that the rumors don't tell." She said while looking straight into is eyes.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Even though Hanabi is clearly my father's favorite, I-I was supposed to win." After hearing this his mind suddenly went into overdrive. He didn't know what to say or think. "I-I don't know why, my father only told me that I _had_ to win. No explanation, just told me to win. But, I couldn't. I just couldn't hit Hanabi." She started to sob as tear after tear fell from her soft eyes. This seemed to snap Naruto back into reality. He gently laid a supporting hand in her shoulder.

"It's not a bad thing, that you wouldn't hit your sister. That goes to show that yours is a golden heart." She looked up at him with slightly puffy eyes. He was smiling at her, the kind of smiles that could make anyone in the world feel a million times better. She smiled at him while whipping some tears off her face. "Come on, let's go get ice cream." He didn't wait for a response before he took her hand and ran to the park towing her with him. He spent the rest of the day with her, talking about any other subject other than the fight or his parents. Which felt weird to her, since he never stopped talking about them. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't realize when he started calling her.

"Hinata... Hinata!" She was snapped back into reality, when she looked at Naruto he had a serious expression on his face.

"Everything all right, N-Naruto-kun?" He shook his head a little before smiling at her as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah, anyways let's get you back home." He took her hand into his own and the couple slowly made their way back towards the Hyuuga compound. It was a silent journey, but it was more of a comfortable silence. When they reached the door she said a quiet goodbye before reaching for the handle. But he spoke up before she could enter.

"Wait! Hinata." She turned to face him with a curious expression. "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow? I mean, we could go for some ramen or something. O-or if you prefer we could go for dango or perhaps the BBQ house. If you don't want food maybe we can go to the Hokage monument or go train together. I mean, only if you want to, if you don't then it's cool. Then we can postpone the date. I MEAN- It's not a _date_ date, just a friendly reunion. NOT that I wouldn't date you, I mean you are beautiful and all but. I-I mean I-" Hinata put a single finger on his lips to quiet him down.

"I would love to go out with you tomorrow, N-Naruto-kun." She removed her hand and leaned forward to place an innocent kiss on his cheek. "Good night." She hurriedly walked inside the compound before the door closed with a quiet thud. Naruto stood there, too shocked to move. Eventually he started grinning like an idiot and he jumped high in the air before running back home still smiling. The next few weeks were spent like that, they went together everywhere, at least three times a week. And when they met by chance they talked for hours on end, needless to say Hinata was happy. Up until winter...

"_Naruto-kun, November only has 30 days." Naruto shook his head from side to side saying no._

"_Not on leap years. I know most people say February gets that day but, my dad loved winter so much that he decided to add one day to November. People would always get confused but, you know... I liked it." He stood up and offered her his hand. "Come on, lets go grab a bite to eat!"_

When night fell he took her back to the Hyuuga compound. He stood there in front of her and gave her a hug like he always did, but this time he held on for a longer time.

"N-Naruto-kun, everything all right?" Hinata said with a blush adorning her delicate face.

"Yeah, it's just... Nevermind." He let go of her and stood there without moving. "I'll see you again sometime. It was fun!" He then turned around and slowly walked away.

_Did he say 'I'll see you again __**sometime! **__What did he mean by that._ She shook her head and walked into the compound, but not before running through the events once more. _Could he maybe?_

Naruto was slowly making his way back home, but when instead of going to his apartment he stopped in a dark alley, where a tall dark figure emerged and spoke to him.

"I told you, you had to leave weeks ago, if you don't soon enough you'll end up DEAD!" He spoke brashly but Naruto was non-responsive. After a short moment of silence he responded.

"I know, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave her..." He said softly. The other man let out a long sigh before speaking again.

"I warned you didn't I? Now that you have to leave it will be all the much harder for you. And if she finds out you know she will let you go just like that. She will either try to stop you, or worse, she will try to come with you." Naruto cringed at his words, he lifted his gaze up at the sky and sighed.

"I know... I'll take care of it, don't worry."

"You better." Having said that the man retreated back into the alley without a sound. Naruto stood there for a couple of seconds before he too was on his way. When he arrived home he walked up to the balcony and stood there gazing up at the stars for hours, thinking of what he was going to do next.

"Gomen, Hinata, Sakura, Kakashi." He walked over to his apartment door and stepped out, not before giving a good long look at his apartment. He slowly made his way through the village in the early morning. The sun was barely beginning to rise, so the sky was painted a deep orange color. Not a single person was present in the streets, not even the merchants. _Better this way._ He thought as he was approaching the main gate, but not in a million years would he have foreseen what happened next. Standing there in the gate was a lone figure, with the plain white robes of the famous Konoha clan, and with two plain white eyes staring right at him.

"Hiashi-sama!" (Not Hinata, HA!) He was shocked to say the least. The man who had always showed a clear dislike towards him was now the only person seeing him off.

"Why?" That question really threw his mind off balance. Not a hint of anger or despise in the older man's voice. Only concern, oddly enough, nevertheless his question was understood.

"You'll see soon enough." He tried to walk around him but he had stretched his arm to grasp his shoulder.

"She'll be heartbroken." The remark brought painful realizations to his head, scrambling his thoughts to the point in which staying was a viable option, but he knew better.

"She'll recover, she is stronger than you give her credit for." If he didn't know better he would have thought the great Hyuuga Hiashi flinched at his words.

"There is so much you still don't know. Maybe some day you'll understand." He reached with his free hand deep into his pocket, from which he pulled out a small satchel. "Take it as a show of gratitude from my family, and apology of my own." He tossed the leather bag towards Naruto who swiftly caught it in mid-air. He didn't need to open it to know that it was filled with gold coins.

"Arigato... You better take good care of her." Having said that Naruto walked around the older man and exited the village, disappearing on the horizon after a while. The Hyuuga elder walked through town for a while, trying to process he events that had taken place a couple of hours ago. The town was now fully active, with the market filled with hopeful merchants and curious buyers. Suddenly the Konohagakure council stepped into the central podium, the Hokage addressed the crowds first, with a tinge of doubt in his expression.

"We have important news to share with all of you. It may seem unbelievable, and we are not so sure ourselves of the reliability of our sources. I myself would like to believe it is not true but due to recent evidence, we have come to the conclusion that-" He cut himself off and swallowed hard, as if trying to delay what was coming next as much as possible. But Danzo stepped forward first and finished his sentence.

"From this moment on, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, Uzumaki-Namekaze Naruto, has been found guilty of his parent's murder and is now an S-rank criminal!"

Author's Note: I find fun the idea of extremely powerful protagonists, so I will be including Sasuke, Naruto, and Gaara with much more powerful techniques than they should have. Including but not restricted to Kotoamatsukami, the Hiraishin, and metallic sand respectively. I am pretty sure that they don't have access to these techniques in the manga or the anime, I may be wrong, but I may be right as well.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

Somewhere in the Suna Desert, present day.

Naruto was slowly making his way through the dim halls of the hideout, his expression showed that he was lost in his thoughts. The rhythmic tapping of his step was the only sound that echoed through the halls, until a small metallic clank snapped him back to his senses. Naruto followed the sound to Gaara's room, where he was kneeling in front of a bunch of nails and bolts. He had a frustrated look and both of his hands were raised over the small bolts. Naruto entered the room as Gaara closed his eyes and his hands tensed up.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Trying to get a few more tricks in my arsenal." He said with a sigh. Naruto walked over to him and bent down to pick up one of the bolts. He thoroughly examined it and then dropped it back down.

"Bolts?" He asked with a puzzled expression.

"Remember the tales of the Sadaime Kazekage*?" Naruto brought one of his hands to his chin and closed his eyes as if he were in deep thought.

"He was the shinobi who could manipulate iron sand and wield it like a weapon." Gaara nodded and continued to speak.

"He developed the technique by copying Shukaku's ability to 'magnetize' stuff and then manipulate it with his chakra. However, his technique had the imperfection of being able to only utilize his own metal pellets. Similar to sand, but several times heavier, it was sill a magnificent weapon." He picked up the bolts and stood up to walk towards a small table, where he dropped the contents of his hand.

"Some time later, Toroi of Kumogakure* had developed his own magnet style. He injected his chakra into his shuriken to magnetize them, and if these came into contact with _anything_ else, said object was also magnetized." Gaara picked up a single bolt and tossed it in the air. But instead of falling to the ground it floated lightly around him.

"I, on the other hand, have the aid of the Shukaku himself to help me. I want to take this technique to the next level." Suddenly the bolt shot forward, zooming by Naruto's face, and finally embedding itself on the wall. Naruto tensed up but immediately relaxed, only to have the rest of the bolts follow the first one's lead, and almost impale his face.

"How did you-" Naruto's expression was one of shock, but Gaara only had a cocky smile drawn in his face.

"I have been practicing sending magnetic waves of my own chakra to magnetize any object I want." He said with a proud expression.

"ANY OBJECT?" Naruto asked curiously, Gaara's expression dropped after hearing his question.

"Well... That's what I hope to one day be able to do. But for now this is all I can do." He raised his hand towards the bolts, and one of them floated up, and when it was high in the air it turned into fine dust, after that the res of the bolts did the same and a large dust mound was formed. As Gaara made different motions with his hand the dust formed different shapes, from spheres to cubes to even small senbon. (I liked the idea of this kind of power. Tell me what you think, but personally I found it quite interesting, and somewhat possible. If you guys like it I will do this for Sasuke and Naruto, and maybe other characters. Also if any of you wants you can send me an idea for a technique and I will see if I can include it somewhere in the story. If you think it is too far-fetched then normal Iron Sand will do.)

"That looks promising, but I can see that you still need practice with that, so while you play around I'm gonna go patrol the area. Don't want any bandits breaking in." When Naruto said that Gaara scoffed and smiled.

"I thin the bandits would be the ones who don't want to end up here." Naruto laughed at Gaara's comment before walking out of the room. He slowly made his way through the dimly lit maze that had become his home. Once again he found himself completely engulfed in his own thoughts. Unconsciously he walked towards the main entrance, and stood there looking up at the bright sun. But once again he was distracted by an intruding sound, though this time they were footsteps.

"I see that you are still hanging around this old dump. Usuratonkachi!" Naruto let out a frustrated sigh as he turned to look at the owner of the voice.

"How many times do I have to tell you. Don't call me that!" He raised his fist and started waving it at the person. "SASUKE TEME!" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched when he heard Naruto's nickname for him.

"Who are you calling Teme, BAKA?"

"Who are you calling Baka, TEME?" They stood glaring at each other for several minutes, until Naruto sighed loudly and smiled.

"It's been a long time, Sasuke. How's it going?" Said man also had a subtle smirk on his face. "I assume you already saw the others from Konoha?"

"Hnn.." At his silence Naruto chuckled.

"Still using that stupid one liner... What brings you by? Last time you said you would go back to Kirigakure* for good." Sasuke doesn't say a word, he only dug around his pocket and then he tossed something to Naruto.

"A Hitai-ate*?" He asked curiously. He brushed some dirt off the symbol and saw the four squiggly lines that represented Kirigakure. "What is this, you didn't kill anyone again did you?" At his comment Sasuke scoffed.

"It belonged to one of the council members."

"That still does not answer my question." Sasuke let out a quiet chuckle before responding.

"_I _didn't kill him. He was found dead in the middle of the forest. He had been stripped clean of all of his valuables. Looked like a common robbery according to the ANBU."

"That doesn't sound right. A person of his position would have several guards with them. Where were they?"

"They were found in a nearby cave. Chakra rope binding their feet and hands; a strong sedative had been injected that rendered their entire bodies useless. They were all too perfectly restricted, well, all but one of them. The last remaining guard was allegedly chasing the culprit, but was found in a pretty bad condition not a mile ahead. Yet he had not a single stab or cut wound, only blunt bruises." Sasuke said.

"Sounds like something far too well done for it to be a common robbery." Naruto stood quiet looking up at the clouds. After a minute or so he sighed loudly and turned to look at the brunette. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Looks like you're not as stupid as before." He said with a smirk. "It seems that this specific person was overlooking an investigation regarding those kidnappings in the nearby village."

"There are dozens of officials in the Land of Rivers who are also undertaking investigations. What made him special?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not so sure. But... It seems that on one of his investigations he had come across some documents from-"

"Konohagakure." Naruto cut him off. Sasuke looked at him with a shocked expression.

"How did you know?"

"The last few days there have been small groups of ninjas following me and Hinata's group." At this Sasuke let out a small scoff.

"Yeah, those amateurs think they are so stealthy. I ran into a couple of them on my way here. But they didn't have any hitai-ate or identification. How do you know they are from Konoha?" Naruto decided to overlook his friend's subtle dark humor of him murdering... Again.

"One of them was stupid enough to tell me. When Hinata picked up the scroll I left for them they stepped forward and spit out the truth." He sighed and ran a single hand through his hair, ruffling his golden locks. "What the fuck is going on? I know that someone in Konoha is dealing some rotten cards, but to go as far as to kill a Kirigakure dignitary. You know I think tha-" They both snapped back to look at the source of the barely audible steps that had interrupted their conversation. There, standing in the doorway was Hinata, looking curiously at the men in front of her.

"N-Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san? What are you d-doing here?" Sasuke quickly dismissed her question by turning away from her, leaving Naruto to explain.

"Hey, Hinata! We were just catching up, you know, I haven't seen this idiot in six months." The smile he gave her caused a subtle pink blush to appear on her face. "Don't worry, everything's fine. I'll go back in a few minutes." She softly nodded before retreating back into their hideout.

"What do you think about the murder?" Sasuke asked, still looking at the horizon. When he heard his question Naruto's smile died down and was replaced with a serious expression.

"For now, I'll just leave it be. It seems that the kidnappers are a much bigger issue than Kirigakure or Konohagakure." Having said that both Naruto and Sasuke slowly made their way back into their hideout, unaware of a single figure that was watching them from afar.

"It seems that the time is drawing close."

*Sadaime Kazekage: Third Kazekage

*Kumogakure: Village Hidden in the Clouds

*Usuratonkachi/Baka/Teme: Idiot, stupid, etc.

*Kirigakure: Village Hidden in the Clouds

*Hitai-ate: Forehead Protector

Is it me or does this seem like a much easier way to arrange the term translations?


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

The reunion was not what you would call 'emotional'. They were practically ambushed and kidnapped in the blink of an eye. It was rather strange how he had managed to subdue them both so quickly, Sakura knew that she could have fallen for it, but Kakashi? Something was off, either he had been truly and utterly distracted with something else, or he had known all along and yet chose to let it happen. Both seemed unsettling, but which one was true?

"Hey, Kakashi?" Sakura asked nervously. Said man was, off course, indulged in his favorite reading. He looked up to her with what Guy described as his "cool" face. A lazy eye looking straight at her with his whole body turned the other way.

"What is it, Sakura?" He asked. She looked dow for a minute as she formulated the right question to ask.

"What happened with Sasuke last night?" Kakashi seemed a little surprised at her question, he shut his book and shoved it down his back pocket before answering.

"He injected us with a strong sedative. We were knocked out and he took us hostage to a secluded camp in the forest. Honestly Sakura, do you think the venom might have messed with your brain somehow?" He was smiling and chuckled a little at his own joke, but deep down Sakura could see that he was hiding something. But before she could ask anything a hawk swooped down on them and dropped a tiny wooden tube. She picked it up and saw that it had a message inside it.

"What does the message say?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"Apparently Temari has been ambushed by a couple of ninjas. At first sight she thought it was a common group of thugs, but when she took down one of them she found he had been carrying several pictures, not only of her, but of all of us. Including one of Naruto." Kakashi was shocked at this, though his expression remained calm and collective as always.

"Just who are these people, and could they have something to do with the kidnappers and local gang?" He raised one of his hands to hold his chin in deep thought. They stood there in silence for a short while, until Kakashi let out a loud sigh and spoke up. "For now I think the best thing for us to do would be to report back to the Kazekage. After all, we were only given permission to capture Naruto. If we were to run into another enemy we risk overstepping our boundaries. We are lucky that Temari-san chose to overlook Hinata's confrontation with the alley assailant." Sakura wanted to object, but in the end Kakashi was right.

"Yeah, as much as I hate it we will have to ask the Kazekage for permission to continue our investigation."

"Very well then. Onward to Suna!" The journey back to the capital of the Land of Air was uneventful, unlike Temari they had no unwanted visitors. Since they were basically in the border with the Land of Rivers the trip took them all day. By the time they arrived the sun had completely disappeared into the horizon and the dark and peaceful skies were dotted with countless shinning stars. Being a desert environment no animal sounds could be heard around them, no piercing lone wolf howl nor the ominous hooting of an owl. Their arrival would have gone unnoticed if not for the stationed guards at the gate. Since they were so tired, and the main building would most likely be closed for the night, they decided to go straight to sleep. When the morning came they were escorted to the Kazekage's office by some Sunagakure ANBU. And strangely enough, when they arrived the whole Suna council was there waiting for them.

"Sit!" One of the older looking women said. They did so very slowly and calmly, afraid that any wrong movement would bring down the whole ANBU force on them. Every single person in the room was looking straight at them.

"Secure!" The Kazekage's voice made them flinch, expecting some sort of attack. But instead for ANBU shinobi surrounded the whole group within the room. After making a short series of hand seals a barrier was erected around them. Sakura looked at Kakashi with a confused expression, but his eyes remained glued to the Kazekage. Said man took notice of their internal dilemma and let out a loud sigh.

"Don't worry. We have no intention of hurting you. We have summoned you here to talk, I believe you have already met the bandit group in the border town. Am I correct?" The Kazekage said. Sakura was still doubtful so it was Kakashi who nodded with a silent 'yes'. "Then you must have realized that something is not quite right. Not only do they know that we are looking for them, but they know the exact moment we are going to strike them. Every single plan, every single attempt has been FUTILE!" He slammed his fist down in anger before speaking again.

"It was weird enough that somehow the Air Daimyo was convinced to renounce the charge of the investigation. I had my suspicions that there was a traitor among us, but now I am sure of it. YOU TWO!" He pointed a single finger at them that made them tense up in fear. "You have got to help us."

"US? What do we have to do with your conspiracy theories?" Sakura asked a little too loudly.

"Because out of all the shinobi within our borders you two are the only ones I know are not the traitors?" The Kazekage reassured.

"How are you so certain?" This time Kakashi was the one who doubted his reasoning.

"First of all, you are not from this village, it would be very hard for you to spy on us when the last time you were here was over two years ago! Second, your former student is also the apprentice of the current Hokage, Senju Tsunade. You yourself were trained by the former Hokage, Namikaze Minato. I doubt that with such proper guidance you would end up being rotten seeds. Lastly, I don't know much about being a rogue nin, but I doubt you would attack your own with poison traps."

"Wait, how did you-" Sakura said but was cut off by the Kazekage.

"I have eyes everywhere, Miss Haruno. Remember that as long as you are here."

"With all due respect, Kazekage-sama, how are you so sure that none of the council members present are spies?" Kakashi said with a careful tone.

" Apart from the fact that most of them have been retired for several years, I have known them all for years, I can swear on my name that they are fully loyal to our village. But enough of doubts, we need a plan! Chiyo-baasama, Ebizo-jiisama!" Two old and stern looking elders stood up, one woman and one man.

"I have to admit, Rasa, I find it quite pathetic that you must rely on the help of Konoha nin." The woman said brashly. "But, better they die than one of our own." The man shook his head and spoke as well.

"Please, Shimai*, show some respect towards our guests. I apologize for her behavior, she just doesn't trust shinobi from Konohagakure due to not so recent events." He said calmly, the other woman just scoffed and turned her head away from him.

"Shut up, Ebizo! Now you two, you will sneak into their main hideout and obtain as much information as you can. If you can you must capture another one of them, as you must know already yours was lost due to sloppy decisions." Sakura seemed to have the intention of saying something, but Kakashi shut her up with a firm hand on her shoulder.

"I believe you already know where their base is, I am afraid that for now the only help we can give you are supplies, we have no idea if any one of our shinobi is also a traitor. Better be safe and just send you two alone." Ebizo said with a respectful tone, but they knew that he also held a small resentment towards them. "You can rest and prepare for now, you'll leave when night falls. Try not to reveal your identities to anyone." After that they were dismissed from the office. As they were walking back they started talking.

"Kakashi, do you think this is the right choice? I mean, we don't know what we are getting into, and if Sasuke is right it might be far too dangerous." Sakura said with a worried voice Kakashi sighed and turned to face her.

"I know that this could go potentially wrong, but it's not the first time we have been assigned missions like this. I will notify Tsunade-sama of our current objective, she will most likely send someone here to back us up. And don't forget this is a potential opportunity to mend the bonds between Suna and Konoha. If this mission turns out well we could be closer to forming an alliance."

"Yeah I guess you're right."

"Don't worry, Sakura. Now let's go get ready, this mission is far from over!"

Shimai*: Sister


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.

Somewhere in the Suna Desert, present day.

Night had fallen in the deserted outskirts of the Land of Air. And in the Jinchuriki's hideout silence reigned. They were all huddled around a campfire while eating some random animal that they came upon while hunting. Gaara was still toying around with the bolts he had and Sasuke was staring off into the horizon. Naruto was chugging down serving after serving, and Hinata was silently admiring him. She was used to having quiet meals back at home, but she had expected that with Naruto around things would be a lot more... Bombastic maybe? The silence reminded her of a grim funeral instead of a friendly reunion, but as her timid nature got the best of her she too remained silent. They stayed like that for what felt like ages, but eventually someone broke the silence, though it wasn't Naruto.

"Oi, Usuratonkachi. Why do you want to help Konoha with the kidnappers? They have done nothing bad to you or anyone of us for that matter." Sasuke asked as curiously as his expression allowed him to be. "Last time you said you wanted nothing to do with Konoha."

"Why have you come back to help me? Last time you said you said you wanted nothing to do with us." He asked with a teasing tone, but a serious expression.

"I ran out of options back home, so I started to scrape the bottom of the pot, not important. Answer me, why do you want to do this?" Naruto put down his bowl and sighed as he turned to look at the skies.

"You more than anyone should know that something is not right. Council members and investigators being killed in the streets and no one says a thing. My father, he knew that this was going to happen and that is why he and my mom were killed, and whoever did it was bastard enough to pin it all on me. I'm doing this to see these people pay for what they did." Naruto was clenching his fists and his teeth were starting to turn into fangs.

"Why go through all this trouble for that? We can do this on our own, why get Konoha involved?"

"Think about it, Sasuke. If _we_ started killing off high ranking politicians we will get nothing but a price on our heads. We need to make their capture to be as official as possible." Sasuke let out a small chuckle and smirked.

"I see that you do have a brain, as small as it may be." Naruto grinned and gave him the finger.

"N-Naruto-kun. W-what did you mean b-by that?" Naruto turned to look at Hinata with a puzzled expression.

"By what?" When she met his gaze she immediately blushed. She turned to look at the ground for a few seconds before she gathered the courage to speak again.

"W-what did you mean when y-you said 'if _we _killed'?" The smile on Naruto's face slowly died down, and instead a grim and hurtful was what he showed.

"Not everyone is like you, Hinata. Most people see us as savage beasts because of the beings we hold inside us." His voice was broken and he was looking straight down.

"W-what do you mean? Back in Konoha the civilians were very respectful to you!" Naruto only chuckled as if what she said was a cruel joke, he wished it had been that way.

"It might have seemed like that to you, but believe me when I tell you that they were anything but respectful. When I walked down the street I would always be hit with pebbles and marbles, sometimes even spit would fall on my head. I could always hear the adults calling me names like 'monster', 'abomination', 'demon child'. They would warn their children to stay away from me. Whenever I entered any stores and restaurants folks would look at me like I was something the cat just dragged in." As he spoke his voice reflected all the pain and suffering, and every word felt like a cold hard slap to Hinata.

"A-a-all those years, and I didn't even realize it. I should've-" She was about to continue but Naruto laid a gentle but firm hand over her shoulder.

"Now don't you dare put the blame on yourself. As I said, out of them all you were the kindest. If anything I have to thank you for being there when nobody else was." She still seemed a bit unsure, but when he smiled at her she couldn't help but smile back.

"Okay enough with the flirting!" Sasuke said with a mocking tone, causing both Naruto and Hinata to quickly separate with bright blushes.

"Naruto, how will we achieve your plan?" Gaara asked trying to get them all back on track.

"In all honesty, I have absolutely no idea." He said with a sheepish expression and with one hand behind his head. "I just hope that soon enough something good will happen. But maybe we will have to wait for a couple of-"

"GAARA-SAMA!" The sudden loud and high pitched sounds shocked everyone enough to make them jump, and Naruto fall down.

"Wait's over." Sasuke said before turning towards the newcomer. A young woman with short chocolate hair and eyes of the same tint.

"Matsuri, what are you doing here?" Gaara asked a little surprised. Matsuri stopped just a few feet in front of the group, she bent down to catch her breath. When she tried to speak she did so in between her heavy panting.

"You... Told... Me ... To... Report... Any... Weird... Situation... So... I..." Gaara cut her short by raising one had in front of her face.

"Al right. Matsuri, just relax and take a deep breath." She quickly nodded and did as he said. Eventually she seemed to recover her breath and spoke again, though this time it was much more relaxed.

"Yesterday evening two Konoha nin arrived in Suna. It seems that they somehow knew about the gang on the border town you always talk about. One was a woman, very young, maybe around 20 years old. She had very bright pink hair and a HUGE forehead, seriously, that thing was humongous. I mean, GOD! You could land a plane in that." Naruto had a small smirk on his face when he noticed how Sasuke was slowly getting irritated by her sweet description of Sakura. But since he didn't want anyone getting hurt he decided to intervene.

"I'm sorry, Matsuri, but could you please move on?" She stopped talking and smiled sheepishly with a nervous laughter.

"O yeah, sorry! Anyways the other one was a very tall, grey haired man. He seemed to be on his late twenties, early thirties. And the lower half of his face was covered by a mask. They met up with your father, and even though I couldn't be there I heard from your sister that they were going to infiltrate the gang's hideout. They were scheduled to leave for the town tonight." Everyone turned to look at her in shock when she said that.

"When?" Sasuke asked, with a little bit of concern.

"Oh, umm. They left Suna about... two hours ago?" Not even a second had passed after she said it, and Sasuke had already left.

"It seems it's finally time for us to come out of hiding." Gaara said as they all ran out into the night. However Matsuri couldn't go with them, the council of Sunagakure would not take kindly if she were to suddenly disappear from the village. And with the treat of a traitor the risks were too high, so she decided it would be best if she made her way back to Suna before her absence was noticed.

Somewhere in the Frontier Between the Land of Air and the Land of Rivers, present day.

"You fucking IDIOTS! I told you to only take care of Hinomura, not to attack the fucking daughter of the Kazekage! Now the whole village will be after our heads! And YOU three! How could you fall for such a pathetic illusion!" The man was furiously pacing around the room and he would occasionally turn around to point menacingly at the other four people who were listening intently, three standing up and one kneeling down, covered in sand and bruises and trembling like a scared kitten.

"I-I'm sorry, my lord! But I t-thought that we could take her down!" The boss stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to look at him. His face slowly twitched into a weird and menacing smile.

"Oh, you thought did you?' He slowly walked up to him as he spoke. "Well then maybe you should stop thinking, if THIS is what you shit out of your head!" He swiftly grasped the man's neck with one hand, choking him. He lifted him high up in the air and then with one swift motion, his neck snapped. He dropped his now lifeless corpse and proceeded to meticulously wipe his hand with a handkerchief while muttering stuff like 'useless idiots'.

"If I may, my lord. We would like to-" The man who spoke was the leader of the trio, but before he could continue he was stopped by a severe coughing fit. When he lifted his hand to cover the space where his mouth should be the bandages, and of course his hand, were drenched in dark red blood, too dark, he then dropped to his knees as the coughs intensified. The green haired woman swiftly reached into her pocket and took out a small syringe filled with a clear liquid. She then tilted his head back and drove the needle through his neck.

"It seems that you are not feeling well, Hiroaki." The boss commented. After a few seconds the man in question stopped coughing, he stood up and removed the needle from his neck, to then toss it aside. He gave a slight nod of gratitude to his companion and turned to face his boss.

"Nothing to worry about. Amaya is a very capable alchemist, she will take care of my disease. The intruders are a much bigger issue, they are quite curious and are sure to come looking for us. So we wish to engage them."

"Let me have a swing at them boss. I bet they won't even know what hit them!" The last member of the group started to swing around his mace while panting excitedly.

"Calm down, Mamoru. You will fight them. You were the ones who brought them here and you will be the ones to get them out. You will not fail me." The last part he said in a deep and threatening voice, but Hiroaki just brushed it off.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." He turned around and the other two followed him out of the room. When he was sure they were our of earshot the ruthless boss opened one of the drawers and pulled out a very old and dusty scroll.

"Piece by piece, it all falls into place. I'm sorry Hiroaki, but your death _will _serve a great and noble cause."


End file.
